Day: 2015-12-05

A suspect has been arrested 11/30/2016 in the murder of Heather Ann Willms.

Jose Baldomero Flores III, age 36, was arrested this am morning by the U.S. Marshals’ Lone Star Fugitive Task Force and taken before a judge to faces two charges of capital murder.

Jose was originally questioned and then released in connection to the crime but never arrested 11 years ago.

Her family said she was friends with Flores in high school.

Heather was 21 when she was murdered in Leon Valley, Texas. She failed to show up to work on 2-21-2005, worried friends showed up at her apartment the following day and found her murdered, stabbed to death in the bedroom of her apartment. Police never released too many details about her murder.

She did Not Have An Enemy in the World

Friends described Heather as sweet, kind and hard working. No one could understand why anyone would murder her.

This case is about as cold as a case can get. The Leon Valley Police department currently has 17 sworn officers, in 2013 it was estimated that the population in Leon Valley was 10,808.

Leon Valley from 2001 to 2013 has only had one murder in 2003 and two in 2005, one being Heather’s. In fact, Theft is the highest crime reported in Leon Valley, second to that is burglaries. After that the order is robbery, assault, sex assault, arson and last, murder.

Sometimes, smaller police departments simply don’t have the right training for such brutal crimes

It is no surprise to me that Heather’s case has been left unsolved and cold. The Texas Rangers were given the case to try to solve at one point, however usually you see in smaller, low crime rate towns the police are ill trained/equipped to properly gather the necessary evidence so as to solve a murder. That in no way makes them incompetent, it simply means that things are missed, the right questions are not asked and sometimes evidence is contaminated to the point that it is rendered useless. The Rangers may not have been handed a case that they could truly investigate further.

What we know is that you really do not see a lot of information about Heather’s murder which if they had much would be helpful. Secondly, we know that the police found no obvious signs of forced entry. That in and of itself does not rule out someone gaining entrance to her home without the benefit of Heather letting that person in. She lived in an apartment which means other people have keys to her home as well. I am not saying the apartment manager did it I am simply pointing out that considering the area is low crime perhaps the locks were never changed after the previous owner left…some former maintenance worker had the key, etc. These are critical details that must be looked at.

Out of the Blue in 2014 a Strange Poster Hit a Sleuthing Site

A rather interesting tidbit I gathered from a message board on another blog site was where one individual in particular started a story about Heather, the individual started it by saying that although they did not know her they always place a flower on her grave whenever they are in the cemetery visiting another grave. They also stated that they do not want Heather’s murder forgotten. That statement says a lot to me considering how they opened the original posting they made.

Not totally incriminating in and of itself however, this individual claimed to have run into a young man who had been investigated and who disclosed details of his part in the investigation of Heather’s murder, who happened to be visiting her grave at one point. At the same time the poster was at the grave, mathematically speaking, this would be an astronomical chance encounter unless that individual was at the cemetery at least once a week, and on different days. It’s like winning the lottery…either this person has some pretty incredible luck, they made the story up, they are trying to get back at someone or they know something but are playing cat and mouse, wanting someone to drag the details out of them.

Regardless, the individual goes on to say that this young man who was also visiting Heather’s grave had refused to give his DNA and was was ruled out as a suspect sometime down the road. The individual who posted this tale said a little more in between and after that but I found what the poster said initially disturbing. They claimed to not understand more or less how the system works and claimed or rather hinted at not knowing if the police would allow for them to see the records, even subtly suggested they were afraid to tell the police about the man at the grave but that they did eventually, which I doubt they ever truly did.

What Can Investigators Do Now?

I do feel that this particular individual might prove valuable in further investigating the case. If they knew that the Rangers were investigating the case, knew of the reward in the case and that they could call Crime Stoppers, why would they go to the Leon Valley police as they claimed to report this odd man at Heather’s grave? In fact it would prove useful to find this individual and interview them, re-interview friends and work colleagues, at the very least. The person who killed Heather knew Heather. This is an up close and personal kill and the killer I believe is someone who likes to play games. He likes to be reminded of what he did.

This killer had some sort of obsession with Heather, she rejected something this person offered or something the individual felt they offered.

The case could still be solved but tracking down everyone from 2005 might prove difficult. Heather was a waitress, so if you factor that in, you may have to track down her customers. Someone has an idea of who the killer is. It was someone who wanted something with Heather and people were aware of it.

It is not too late to take a look at Heather’s murder and re-investigate every single piece of her life and murder, this case could have been solved at the time of her death had it happened in a bigger city.